PREFACE. The object of this work, as the title implies, is to furnish the reader with a succinct review of the salient facts of Queensland progress, first as an autonomous British colony of the Australian group, and second as a State of the Commonwealth of Australia, retaining all constitutional rights unimpaired save in so far as they may be qualified by the provisions of “The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900.” In treating of federation as thus accomplished the object has been to set forth dispassionately, yet clearly, the general results of the change upon the well-being of the State, and the reasonable anticipations of its future when the objects of federal union have been more completely attained. This is not a volume of statistics, yet in a fifty-year review it would be impossible entirely to avoid the use of figures. These, however, have been availed of sparingly; and, to avoid encumbering the text, tables compiled by the Government Statistician contrasting the progress made, by presenting the figures for the first, middle, and last (available) years of the fifty-year period, have been included as appendices. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, and to embody in the volume all the information possible without overloading it with detail. For the series of diagrams illustrative of the subdivision of Australia into separate colonies between 1787 and 1863 acknowledgment is due to the Under Secretary for Lands of New South Wales, under whose authority they were compiled from data in the Public Library, Sydney. |